


This whole situation could have been avoided if they just talked to each other like adults

by NKNovak



Category: IT (Movies - Muschietti)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Eddie and Stan are dormmates, M/M, Richie is a frat boy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-04
Updated: 2020-01-04
Packaged: 2021-02-25 04:02:11
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,871
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22109650
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NKNovak/pseuds/NKNovak
Summary: Eddie kissed Richie once, during winter break he finds realizes he wants to kiss Richie again.
Relationships: Eddie Kaspbrak/Richie Tozier
Kudos: 54





	This whole situation could have been avoided if they just talked to each other like adults

"Are you ready?”

“No”

Bill and Eddie stood in front of the Zeta Psi house, Eddie had never been to a frat party and he was terrified. 

“Come on, Richie’s in there, he invited you personally”

“I know, Bill. Maybe I shouldn’t go in. I didn’t tell him I was coming, I shouldn’t go in if I didn’t RSVP”

“This is a fucking f-f-frat party, he invited you via text, Eddie!” Bill sighed. “Listen, I’m not going to f-force you. If you want I can drop you back at your dorm”

Eddie thought about it. He knew his dormmate Stan was going to be here. Stan didn’t join the frat but he was Richie’s best friend. That’s how Eddie met Richie in the first place. Eddie didn’t want to spend the night all alone in his dorm again. 

“Let’s go inside.”

•••

Eddie was prepared for the loud EDM music since he could hear it from outside. He stuck close to Bill as he took in his surroundings. People were standing and talking around a beer pong table on one side of the house. On the other side of the house closer to the speakers, students were dancing (read: grinding) against each other, almost everyone had a red solo cup or a beer bottle in hand.

Bill’s voice caught his attention “You need to relax”

“Huh?”

“You look very uncomfortable”

“I am uncomfortable.” He was here for Richie, once he got to him it would all be worth it. At least he hoped so. It had been a while since they last talked. . . 

•••

Last semester, Eddie and Stan had both finished their final exams but still had a couple of days before they moved back home for winter break. Stan invited Eddie to come celebrate the end of finals with himself and his childhood best friend, Richie. Eddie knew that celebrate actually meant going to bars and getting drunk. Eddie refuses, just as he had refused every previous celebration invitation. He enjoyed hanging out with Stan, even Richie, but the idea of sneaking into bars and clubs made him feel uneasy. That’s why, whenever he refused, he just said he couldn’t because he didn’t have a fake ID, which was true. Unfortunately, for Eddie, Richie showed up at their dorm with a fake ID for Eddie. 

“I know how much you want to party with us and how disappointed you are when you can’t, well, now you can.”

They gave Eddie a minute or two to look at it as Eddie tried to memorize all the information and he went out with them.

While at the bar, Eddie, who didn’t know his limits and never drank before, got wasted. He didn’t mean to. He didn’t realize the alcohol content of his drinks and he drank them so fast (and he was mixing his drinks too) that he was drunk before he knew it.

Most of the night was a blur for Eddie, he remembered very little. He knew (because Stan had told him) Richie volunteered to take Eddie back to the dorm. Stan wanted to help but Richie insisted that Stan stay out and he’d meet up with him again when Eddie was safe. The only thing Eddie himself remembered clearly was a kiss with Richie.

He also remembered waking up to a text from Richie, which he was far too nauseous to answer. 

Over the break, Eddie kept trying to figure out why on earth he would kiss Tozier! _I don’t like Richie! I don’t. I don’t. . . Fuck! _Eddie realized that, although he tried not too, he had fallen in love with Richie. Richie was crass. He’s jokes were dirty (sure, they were funny) but not as funny as he thought they were. He always looked a mess. He’d have Eddie and Stan repeat themselves because his mind wondered mid-conversation. He was a frat boy. He was the opposite of the kind of boy Eddie saw himself with. Yet, Eddie had fallen in love with him.__

____

____

The first day of the Spring semester Eddie got a text from Richie inviting him to the beginning of the semester party, the first time he got a personal text from Richie rather than sending Stan a text in which he invited both of them.

Eddie wanted to see Richie again (wanted to kiss him again.) Still, he never texted Richie back because he didn’t know if he wanted to go to a frat party, he never had before.

That’s how he got to where he was now: standing in the doorway to a kitchen where Richie was leaning against the counter red cup in his hand, a girl leaning against him whispering something in his ear. Eddie retreated but didn’t leave till he saw Richie leading the same girl up the stairs, where the boys' bedrooms were. Bill took Eddie back to his dorm.

Eddie should have known. He had never seen Richie with a guy, he never talked about hot actors, only actresses, and he never had crazy ex-boyfriend stories, only girlfriends. Of course, Richie wasn’t like him, into guys. God, he was so stupid! He went in there ready to pour his heart out to Richie. . . and he still wanted to, he still wanted Richie. There was only one thing he could do.

Eddie from that point on tried to avoid Richie. He didn’t go out drinking with Richie or Stan nor did he go to any of the parties at Richie’s frat house, which wasn’t unusual but he turned down Stan’s offers to go to lunch with him and Richie and tried to leave the dorm for the library whenever Richie was there without being too obvious but it was obvious. 

“If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you were avoiding me.” Richie said. He was sitting on Stan’s bed when Eddie walked into his dorm room after class one day. Stan wasn’t here.

“How did you get in here?” Eddie asked.

“Not important. Why are you avoiding me, Eds?”

“I’m not avoiding you”

“Is it me?” Richie asked, “did I do something?”

“No. It’s not you, it’s just- it’s me”

“You know that bullshit, dontcha?“ Richie asked, but it was rhetorical. He added, “is it because you kissed me?” Richie asked.

Eddie didn’t reply. 

“We can just pretend it didn’t happen”

Well, if Eddie didn’t say it now he never would. “But I don’t _want _to.”__

____

____

“Huh?”

“I don’t want to forget that kiss. I went to your beginning of the semester party with the intention of kissing you more. Then I saw you at that party with that girl” a look of confusion passed over Richie’s face, “and I left.”

“What the hell, Eddie? You kiss me then ghost me! I try to mend this relationship by telling you, forget about that and you're telling me you actually meant all that stuff you said that night.”

That last part caught Eddie of guard. “All that stuff I said?” 

“You don’t remember?” Richie realized. “Well, let me tell you”

•••

“Where are we going?” At least that’s what Eddie tried to say, it came out slurred but Richie knew what Eddie meant.

Richie wasn’t in the mood for conversation as he dragged Eddie’s ass back to his dorm after he got plastered during their post-finals celebration. Still, he replied, “Back to your dorm”

“Nooooo” Eddie stopped moving and let go of Richie without the support he fell but didn’t seem bothered by it.

Richie crouched down in front of Eddie. “What do you mean no?”

“I gotta to stay out” 

“Why?”

“Because Richie” Eddie didn’t seem to know he was talking to Richie. He’s was drunk and they were both in the dark.

“What about Richie?”

“He thinks I’m a loser”

“No, he doesn’t”

Eddie nodded, “he thinks I’m lame and a wet blanket and a buzzkill. I never go out with them and I text Stan to make sure he and Richie are still okay.” Eddie let himself fall backward on the cement so he was laying down. “But I just care. I want them to be okay”

Richie winced, he may have uttered something like that once or twice while picking up Stan only to find out once again that Eddie wouldn’t be joining them. He didn’t mean it and certainly didn’t mean for Eddie to hear it and hold onto it like that. “Why do you care what that asshole thinks anyway?” Richie asked.

“Because Richie” Eddie smiled.

Well, he was getting nowhere with Eddie. He picked him up and continued to bring him back to the dorm. 

“I like Richie” Eddie mumbled.

“Richie likes you too”

“No. You don’t understand. I really like Richie. Mom says I’m not supposed to like boys like that so I don’t most of the time and then there are boys like Richie”

“Oh. I get it.” Richie replied. “Maybe. . . You should tell him. Text him in the morning?”

Eddie was quiet, till they got back to the dorm. Richie opened the door and turned on the lights. Eddie could finally see Richie. He smiled. “Richie!” He was already half leaning on Richie so it wasn’t to hard to pull him in for a kiss. “I like you”

Richie smiled. “I like you too, Eds. Now, get some sleep, drink some water, and tell me you actually mean this when your sober”

•••

“All I remember is the kiss,” Eddie said when Richie had finished his retelling. 

“But you meant it? All of it?” Richie asked.

“Yeah” Eddie nodded. “I did.”

“Cause I like you too.”

Eddie smiled then remembered, “wait, what about that girl at the party?”

“Yeah.” Richie pulled out his phone and started swiping through it. “There is only one person that I think your talking about.” Richie showed Eddie a picture on his phone. A selfie, probably taken at the party of Richie, the girl, Stan, and Beverly, a friend of Richie’s that Eddie had heard about but not yet met.

Eddie nodded.

“Yeah. I don’t know what you think happened that night, but that’s just Maddie.”

“She was whispering in your ear, Richie, then I saw you take her upstairs”

“No, no, no, no!” Richie said, immediately trying to shut down where Eddie minds was going. “She was whispering in my ear to ask where the bathroom was, when I pointed to it and she saw the line she asked if I knew where a different one was. Upstairs was the bathroom which was off limits to everyone who didn’t live in the house” 

“Why did she get to use it”

“Maddie gets special treatment”

“But _why? _"__

____

____

“Because she’s my sister”

“You have a sister”

“Yeah. Wait, I never mentioned Maddie.”

“No”

“Oh. That’s weird. Yeah. I have a twin sister, Madison, I call her Maddie.”

“Oh”

“Everyone in our hometown used to call us: The Terrible Tozier Twins” Richie added, “but forget about her for a sec, what about us?”

“Right. Well, I like you and you like me meaning I can do this again” Eddie pulled Richie down into a kiss. 

“It’s about damn time” Eddie and Richie turned towards the door at the sound of Stan’s voice. How long had he been standing there?


End file.
